Chatham County Commissioners voted on Friday to spend $40,000 to review and update previous economic and feasibility studies for a proposed convention center hotel on Hutchinson Island.

The reviews, which are meant to validate studies commissioned by the Georgia International and Maritime Trade Center Authority, are expected to take about a month to complete.

Assistant County Manager Pat Monahan said he could present the findings in December, along with information requested by some commissioners about a convention center hotel in Nashville.

The vote was split five to four along party lines, with Democratic commissioners in the majority.

Commissioners Helen Stone and Dean Kicklighter said the vote should be delayed until after the next commission is sworn in next year. Since the decision to move forward with the project will ultimately be up to future commissioners, paying for the reviews now could be a waste of money, Kicklighter said.

Commissioner Patrick Shay said the studies are needed for the next commission to make an informed decision regarding the hotel, which would be built using a combination of private financing and county-backed bonds.

“They have certainly heard from the skeptics, but they have only heard from the skeptics,” Shay said. “That’s because the county has not done the homework we instructed them to do.”

Shay said the studies were supposed to be completed after they were approved by the commission about 14 months ago.

The agreement with the project’s preferred developer, Hutchinson Hotel Holdings, has been extended three times since commissioners originally approved it in August 2011.

Additional agreements will have to be approved before any bonds could be issued, which will not take place until after the new commission is sworn in January.

In other actions, commissioners:

• Adopted a pedestrian crosswalk ordinance with graduated fines, allowing motorists to be cited for failing to yield to pedestrians in crosswalks. Violators can be fined up to $125 for the first offense, $250 for the second violation and $500 for a third.